When the trust account is high, communication is easy, instant, and effective.
– Stephen R. Covey

Changing an organization’s structure seems to be the common knee-jerk response to internal issues. My prior company embarked on a reorganization to eliminate arbitrary site- and function based structures so that we could align around corporate-wide value creation processes.

During the restructuring process, an organization typically inserts a new management layer, such as a Chief Operating Officer (COO). Think about this from a “respect for people” perspective. The now-lower heads of each functional group no longer receive the mentoring of the CEO. They have been diminished in stature, and their voices and concerns have to go through another layer to be heard by top management. This is not likely to solve any of the
internal problems facing a company.

If you look at the root causes to internal problems, you’ll often find that certain groups and their leaders aren’t communicating effectively. They aren’t aligned, and changing the organizational structure will not change that one iota. In fact, it will just shift the problem around and probably create new troubles.

Years ago, I was having similar issues in my company. Leaders weren’t leading, they weren’t talking, and they weren’t aligned. Different levels of commitment and different interpersonal communication styles were causing misunderstandings, leading to quality and customer issues. So we took the entire extended executive leadership team through Patrick Lencioni’s The Five Dysfunctions of a Team and accompanying workbooks. Over the course of a year, we addressed our absence of trust, misalignment, communication, and the like.

Sometimes the training was very difficult, like the exercise where each member of the leadership team stood up and listened while the others openly and candidly discussed their “areas for improvement.” We nearly lost a couple team members that day. But in the end, our leadership team learned how to openly and honestly communicate, which helped us align ourselves with one another. (Later, we found we needed to work hard to sustain this improvement; otherwise, we’d lapse into traditional silo politics.)

The second thing we did to improve the leadership team happened by accident. We had to demolish one of our new buildings to make room for a new facility, and during the two-year construction period, I moved my leadership team into a triple- wide trailer. We planted a couple of pink flamingos out front and nicknamed it the “Flamingo Hilton.” The new office was uncomfortable and the walls were paper-thin. We had to learn to live close together and deal with the conversations we heard on the other sides of the walls. The proximity, though not always fun, improved our communication. The daily executive leadership team standup meeting, where we video conferenced with the leadership of our other sites, also helped.

The lessons we learned in the trailer changed how we planned our company’s future. As we were designing our new facility, we had a lot of debate about where the senior leadership team members should reside. Initially, I favored an approach that is common in Lean environments, where each leadership team member is with his or her team, often on the production floor itself. However, we decided to go against Lean convention and locate the senior leadership team together on the second floor of the building. One big reason for this was that we noticed when a senior leader- ship team member spent too much time with his team, the supervisory and decision-making capability of junior leaders suffered. As much as we tried to encourage younger leaders to take initiative, it was just too easy to revert to the senior manager making the decisions. One set of stairs removed the temptation for upper management to get involved when it shouldn’t, thereby creating respect for our people by enabling their independence, autonomy, and growth. Additionally, we found it was easier to focus the senior leadership team on future strategy instead of the day-to-day mayhem.

Physically separating the executive and junior management workspaces did not prevent senior team members from spending a lot of time mentoring, teaching, and helping their teams. But the small change in our physical location, which changed our focus and perspective, was important. Our junior leaders learned to step up and make decisions, eventually adding a lot of leadership strength to our company.

As we learned, simply changing the structure of an organization does not create excellence and effectiveness. You have to dig deep to improve the underlying leadership competence and communication. As you do that, the organizational structure becomes less and less relevant.

When you find your company is not producing the results you want, it may be time for some big changes, but not the ones you think. Instead of reorganizing your corporate structure, first look to solve conflict issues by improving leadership capability and communication—not by adding a new layer of management. Respect your managers by providing training, mentoring, and feedback to improve their leadership skills. Respect your managers by allowing them to interact across a wide span, and be mentored by senior leaders. Respect others in the organization by reducing layers and barriers to communication, and you will be much more likely to produce the changes you are looking for.

There is only one true wealth in all the universe—living time.
– Frank Herbert

I was hesitant about discussing this topic, but decided it truly does impact my perspective on work and life. As we get older (I’m now in my 50s), the end of our lives—our impending doom, rebirth, or whatever you believe—is more on our minds. Whether we like it or not, our mortality can motivate us to be more productive. We each have a finite amount of time in this existence (sadly for some, less than we expect). Make the best use of it. Being aware (mindful) of my mortality has added focus and priority to what I want to get done, both personally and professionally.

Experiencing how time seems to accelerate as I age (and recognizing that there’s a finite amount of it), has encouraged me to look at how I’m consuming my limited inventory of minutes.
What projects and activities truly create value from the customer’s (my) perspective? What projects, accomplishments, and dreams have I been putting off ? Do I have the right balance of professional and personal activities?

I want to be careful to not overdo it, however. Even at my age, I have some friends and family who are still too single-mindedly focused on a career or ambition, even if they do not like it. In your own life, ensure there’s balance, explore other aspects of life, do something you enjoy and learn from. There isn’t much time left.

New habits can be powerful. But habits can also create barriers that limit our perspective, which can hinder kaizen, creativity, and even our knowledge of ourselves. This is known as the proverbial “rut,” and we’ve all been there at times in our lives.

Sometimes you just need a break to re-center, recalibrate, recharge, or readjust your horizons. In the Zen world, this is datsuzoku, a break from the routine. Datsuzoku can be as simple as getting a good night’s sleep or as common as taking a week of vacation.

I try to insert breaks in my routines in many ways. My wife and I visit a couple of new countries each year—we’re up to over sixty now. Later on, I’ll tell you about how every year for over twenty years I’ve had an annual goal to do or learn something different. These have included running a marathon, learning HTML programming, and researching Biblical history. Each month, I try to read a book on a topic I otherwise wouldn’t have been interested in. Each week, I take some time for myself and try to find a new place to walk. With all of these breaks, my perspectives change and I learn something.

What habits or activities do you have at home, at work, or with your team, that need to be examined? What would happen if you broke those routines? What would you learn? How would perspectives change? Could it enable change or innovation?

There are numerous books describing how Zen can be applied to business, so I will just give you an overview and avoid the minutiae. Zen helps leaders grow by letting them understand their true nature, in the present. Zen helps organizations grow by enabling them to understand their true values and their present state. It helps integrate those into a long-term strategy with supporting activities that are continually adjusted based on events in the present.

One of the most important ways Zen does this is by encouraging simplicity. Our leadership lives are complex. In a 2010 study of over 1,500 chief executive officers by IBM’s Institute for Business Value, the number one challenge they faced was “the rapid escalation of complexity.” Over 80% predicted even more complexity in the future. Zen’s push for simplicity can free up leaders’ time and other resources and help them be more effective. In his oft- circulated treatise titled “Things Leaders Do,” GE CEO Jeff Immelt pushes leaders to “Simplify constantly—every leader needs to explain the top three things the organization is working on. If you can’t, then you’re not leading well.”

As organizations become more complex, conventional solutions to problems become less effective, so solutions must be out of the box. Zen teaches us to think in new ways, always considering unconventional ideas instead of dismissing them outright. Solutions created in this fashion are more likely to be competitive disruptors.

Zen brings us back to understanding the value of our people, the value of purpose, the importance of ethics. The human side of business is sometimes sacrificed to create future value, and the seductive power of an external extrinsic reward may become overpowering without some level of reflection and introspection that Zen provides. It grounds a leader in the present and reminds him or her what is really important.

One of the most powerful Lean tools is called value stream mapping, a visual management method used to document the flow and creation of value in a process. The definition of a value stream is all steps—value-added and non-value-added—that contribute to taking the process from raw materials (or raw data, etc.) to the customer. As with the other tools I’ve discussed, value stream mapping can be used to understand and document the production floor, in-office processes, hospital surgical wards, and, once again, even at home.

The first step in value stream mapping is to choose the process you want to improve, which will then be mapped. I recommend starting with a small, easily-defined process before tackling something more complex. For example, instead of trying to map an entire manufacturing operation, start with a specific work cell or operation. In an office environment, start with the accounts payable process instead of the entire financial management process. Sometimes, especially early on in a Lean transformation, it can be difficult to identify specific processes. I’ve seen way too many organizations take their first steps into value stream mapping by trying to map their entire organization. This generally results in mass confusion, disappointment, and walls covered with sticky notes.

Once again, it is best to perform the value stream mapping exercise at the process so it can be observed in real time. Traditionally, you use a large sheet of paper and draw the map by hand with a pen or pencil. If more than one person is involved, it may be easier to use a whiteboard or a wall with sticky notes. (You can use software too, but as I described earlier, I believe you learn more by writing by hand.)

The first step is to create the current state value stream map. Observe the process and detail each step in flowchart form. Traditional value stream mapping uses specific icons and symbols, which you can see on examples in the Resources section. Focus on material flow first, then look at information flow. Write down the average amount of time each step takes and how each step relates to the others. Be sure to observe multiple runs of the process so you can also note variations in the process and any issues that arise. Also, note the rate of customer demand so that you can calculate takt time as well as the total time the process takes.

Once everyone is satisfied that the value stream map accurately reflects the process, it is time to review, discuss, and envision ways to improve it. Ask yourself where waste is being generated, particularly in terms of time or idle materials and equipment. Determine which steps are value-added and which are non-value-added. (Think about “value” from the perspective of the customer.)

Remember that some steps may not be value-added from the perspective of the customer, but may still be required, such as paper- work required by regulations or additional testing the company is undertaking as part of a continuous project. You want the process flow rate to match to takt time driven by customer demand and make the process flow better to reduce waiting or transportation. Look for any bottlenecks and how can they be resolved. Remember the seven forms of waste and attempt to eliminate them.

From that discussion, create a new future state value stream map incorporating the ideas for improvement. While doing so, also create an action plan to change from the current state to the future state. Answer questions such as: What equipment needs to be moved? How does the process need to be rearranged? What visual controls will you use to monitor the new process? What is the timing and priority of these action items, and who is responsible? Document these required actions visually on an A3 report and monitor any changes you make via the daily accountability process that we will discuss later.

Make your workplace into showcase that can be understood by everyone at a glance.
– Taiichi Ohno

We’ve all heard the phrase that a picture is worth a thousand words. There’s actually a scientific rationale for that: the brain processes visual information 60,000 times faster than written information. Almost half of the nerve fibers in the brain are linked to the retina and ninety percent of the information processed by the brain is visual. As such, when running an organization, it makes much more sense to visit the gemba and see what is happening there than to sit in an office reading reports about it.

Two core concepts of Lean are removing waste and showing respect for people. Managing your workplace more visually helps with both. By making information visual and public, you convey information more quickly and efficiently. You also show respect for people by clearly communicating the status and expectations of the organization to them. With effective visual management, all employees can align their actions to the goals of the organization.

As Taiichi Ohno said (see quote above), the goal of visual management is to convey the status of the organization at a glance. This can be done in various ways, including posting A3 reports on strategies and projects, metrics boards, production schedule boards, shadow boards for tools, kamishibai boards, and kanban. In Lean operations, you will see andons, which are visual status indicators such as red/green lights on machines, and there will often be markings on the floor to indicate the correct location of equipment and supplies.

Many Lean organizations also have an obeya, a single room that has the key visual management and control charts for the organization. (Note: the obeya is not a “war room!”) To respect people, it should be open and accessible to as many employees as possible. In my last company, a wide section of the main hallway effectively served as an obeya, The hallway was also where we held our daily executive standup meeting. The meeting, and the information on the wall, were open to everyone, so that anyone passing through the hall could quickly check the status of the company without having to sit down and read through a long report. This allowed us to leverage the capacity of the human brain to process visual information, reduce waste, and show more respect for our employees